Mom & Grandma Jeanne Visit {Part 2, PRAGUE}

We had been dying to make a visit to Prague and Berlin for quite some time. When my mom and Grandma made plans to come and visit us, I started making some plans for a trip. I was supposed to run a half Marathon in Prague last Spring and was so disappointed I had to cancel my trip because of my back injury. I loved Prague so much. The only annoyance was that there were SO many tourists! I cannot imagine visiting Prague in high season during the summer months.

Our unique little apartment that we stayed at!
























































After we stayed in Prague, we started our drive to Berlin. Ever since we have lived in Europe, I really wanted to make a Polish pottery shopping trip to Poland. It really wasn't too big of a detour to hit Poland on the way to Berlin, so Abe agreed that we could go. The main hub for Polish pottery shopping (that I know of) is in a town called Boleslaweic. There are several polish pottery shops on every street spread throughout the town. We really only had a handful of hours, so I had researched which shops were the best to hit up. Unfortunately, everyone has different taste, which means that it was going to be kind of a crap shoot if we liked what was recommended. I am very picky when it comes to polish pottery, so I wasn't that surprised when I didn't like a lot of the pottery at several of the shops we went to. We did find one shop that was a hidden gem and had the best patterns. Unfortunately, we didn't realize until after we left that there was an entire upstairs too! Once we went to a couple more shops after that one, we wished we had bought more there and I really wanted to go back. Unfortunately we ran out of time and needed to get some dinner and be on our way to Berlin. We found a cute italian restaurant to eat at the the kids were so spoiled. They let the girls make their own pizzas and dressed them up. They also wanted pictures with them and their pizzas that they created.











And here is a picture of our stash of polish pottery the three of us bought.

Mom and Grandma Jeanne Visit {Part 1}

Back in May, my mom and Grandma Jeanne traveled over here to visit us. It was so much fun having them around and taking them to explore all over the place. Apparently, I hardly took any pictures of all the day trips that we did. Probably because I have been to these places so many times that I forget!

We made a little trip to the charming town of Monschau (one of our favorites!). They enjoyed walking around the cute little village, buying specialty mustards and eating a german brat.




On my Grandmas bucket list was to visit Bruges, Belgium. We walked around town and took everything in. I especially love all the buildings in this village and the canals everywhere. The town square in Bruges is hands down the best square I have ever seen. There is something magical to it with the horse carriages constantly tromping through, the enormous clock tower, the color and architecture of the buildings, etc. Of course we had to try some chocolate and get my most favorite waffles! Unfortunately, this is the only picture I took!!


Abe watched the girls one day for us so we could head to Keukenhof. This was my third time going, but I love it! The flowers are so amazing and I don't think you could ever get sick of going there! The first year that we went, we were able to rent bikes and ride to all the different Tulip and flower fields. That by far has been my most favorite part about Keukenhof. I was really hoping that I could do that with my mom and my Grandma when we visited. Unfortunately since we had such a warm winter, the fields pretty much had already been cut and the park was on it's last leg. I'm sure if we had gone one week later, we would have missed everything. Even though we weren't able to go biking, we were able to go into the park and see all the different tulips and flowers.

South of France (Part 2, French Riviera)

After our time in Provence, we headed to the French Riviera. On our way to our rental house, we decided to stop in Sur La Sorgue, because it supposably has one of the best antique markets/market. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain the entire time and was super crowded. It was a neat little town, but we overall were not that impressed with the market. After living here for almost three years, we have been to a lot of markets. The prices were a lot more expensive at this market and in my opinion, it is because they have so many tourists. After booking it through the market in the rain for an hour, we headed back to the car. When we got to our car, both mine and Kelsey's cars had been keyed!! Ugh, it makes me so incredibly mad!! Here are the only two pictures I took in this little town.





During our drive, it rained most of the time. Thankfully when we got near the coast, the weather cleared up. We decided that since we were driving by St. Tropez, we might as well stop by there. We pretty much just drove in and out of there after realizing how much we did not fit in and that we were going to have to pay way too much to park. Instead, we stopped at a random little beach/rocky area right outside of St. Tropez for the girls to play and take a break from the car ride.









We ended up renting a little house with the Petersons that was in the hills right above Nice. It ended up not being super nice, but we tried not to complain since it was way cheaper than anything else we had seen in the area. I did have to laugh because the ad said that there was a trampoline and a slide/sandbox. When we got there I was a little annoyed to find there wasn't a trampoline in the backyard and the sandbox was a tiny plastic little tykes turtle thing. When Abe was exploring down in the basement, he came back up holding the smallest little trampoline. It made us laugh... not quite what we were expecting!

Our first day we explored Nice. Nice was really charming and fun to walk around and explore.

























After seeing and exploring the cute little town of Nice, we let the kids play at the rocky beach for awhile. It was cold and of course Meika had to get too close and fall IN to the water not long after we were there!















The next day we headed over to Monaco. Monaco was super ritzy and of course we were a little out of place there! There wasn't too much to do there, but it was fun to have lunch, walk around, see all the fancy and expensive boats/yachts and walk up to the Prince's palace.

















On our way back to the rental house, we stopped in a little town called Eze, that is up on top of a hill overlooking the ocean. I had read lots of great reviews on this little village and was dying to see it! It was so cute and I am happy that we made the stop there!





Hiking up through the exotic gardens to the tip top of Eze



Views from the top of Eze







Exploring the mountain top town of Eze

















The next day was spent in Antibes. We mostly spent the day at the beach and let the kids play. They were in need of some play time after being such great sports exploring cities and villages day after day!

















Instead of driving back home the next day, Abe decided we could do a detour through Italy so I could go Pottery Shopping for some new dishes. Lots of girls do trips down there to find sets, but there are no other times that I would be able to go! A lot of the factories in Nove, Italy sell their stuff to the States whether it's Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Bloomingdales.... etc. After all the extra driving, heat and being on my feet, I had massive cankles.



It was way worth the extra night in a hotel and hours of driving. I am in love with my new dishes. These pictures don't really do them justice!





Plus, I also got some serving dishes to match!

Driving home through the Alps wasn't too bad either!